Chicken broth-based soups are some of the ultimate comfort foods, and are especially good when sick. We love them all, from matzo ball soup (a.k.a. “Jewish penicillin”) to tortilla soup to good ol’ Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup (or, better yet, Chicken & Stars – our childhood favorite, though we shudder to think about the sodium content).

Last week, Dishin’ lamented the lack of good xiao long bao in Seattle. This week, we decided to go back to broth outside the dumpling, boogieing to Bellevue and a hole-in-the-wall joint in the Lake Hills Shopping Center. We wanted wonton soup, and we figured a restaurant named Wonton City would be just the place to get our fix.

Wonton soup, per our childhood memories, was just a time-filler and stomach-filler before the “real” food (one from column A and two from column B) came to the table. Trips to China have taught us that wontons, translatable as “swallowing clouds,” can be prepared in a variety of delicious ways, and as a main of the meal. While we like them hot and spicy (Sichuan style), we also grew addicted to the big bowls of wonton soup we could get cheap on the streets of Shanghai.

So, how did Wonton City’s soup stack up? Ma ma hu hu (horse-horse-tiger-tiger, meaning so-so). The wontons themselves – minced pork and shrimp with ginger and more inside a pastry wrapper – didn’t have the snap of others we’ve enjoyed. And the broth could have been better; this one lacked depth and tasted a bit concentrated. We hate to send you afar again, but Mak’s in Richmond (Vancouver) offers a far superior soup. Closer to home, you can sample so-so soups in the various noodle shops of the International District. Or give Wonton City a try; let us know what you think, and whether they still accept the 10% off coupon (with a 2004 expiration date) from their website.
Originally posted at Seattlest (where “we” = me) on September 14, 2007. That coupon is still at their website!

About Jay

Jay Friedman is a freelance food writer and gastronaut—global explorer of things gourmet and, well, not-so-gourmet. Born and raised in New York (and missing those back-east bagels), Jay says he came to Seattle in 1999 because "there's great produce here." He’s dabbled in classes at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, taken cooking classes around the world, cooked as a Vermont inn-sitter, worked as a waiter, and evolved into an omnivoracious eater.